Ireland’s New Gambling Regulator Signs MOU With Nevada Gaming Control Board
GRAI, Ireland's newly operational gambling regulator, has signed its first U.S. cooperation agreement with the Nevada Gaming Control Board as it rolls out a new betting licensing regime.
The Gambling Regulatory Authority of Ireland (GRAI) has signed a memorandum of understanding with the Nevada Gaming Control Board, marking the first formal cooperation agreement between the newly created Irish regulator and a gambling authority in the United States. The partnership pairs one of the world’s newest gaming regulators with the oldest, as Ireland works to stand up an entirely new licensing regime for betting and gambling.
GRAI became operational earlier this year after being established under the Gambling Regulation Act 2024, and it has since opened applications for remote betting, remote betting intermediary, and in-person betting licences. The MOU with Nevada gives Ireland’s regulator a direct line to a jurisdiction that has overseen licensed gambling for nearly a century, at a moment when GRAI is still building out its enforcement, licensing, and consumer-protection functions from scratch.
Why Nevada, and Why Now
“The knowledge and expertise that the Nevada Gaming Control Board have in terms of gambling regulation are very valuable to us in the GRAI,” GRAI CEO Anne Marie Caulfield said in a statement. “We very much welcome the insight, guidance, and experience that the NGCB can provide to the GRAI as a newly established regulator, and I look forward to our continued partnership with the shared goal of consumer protection and public health and safety at the heart of operations.”
NGCB Chairman Mike Dreitzer struck a similar note from the American side. “We are pleased to sign an MOU with the GRAI and look forward to sharing best practices with them and advancing our collaboration,” Dreitzer said. Nevada’s board has regulated casino and sports betting operations since the 1950s, giving it decades of institutional experience in licensing, enforcement, and problem-gambling oversight that a brand-new authority like GRAI can draw on as it writes its own playbook.
Ireland’s New Licensing Regime Is Still Taking Shape
The timing lines up with a major shift in how Ireland regulates betting. GRAI opened its licensing portal for remote betting, remote betting intermediary, and in-person betting licences in February, replacing a decades-old system built around the Totalisator Act 1929 and the Betting Act 1931. Under the new framework, operators face background checks, suitability reviews, and requirements to demonstrate they can fund customer winnings from lawful activity, while consumers get new protections such as the ability to set deposit limits and a ban on using credit cards to fund gambling accounts.
That online and remote licensing push is precisely where cross-border cooperation matters most. As GRAI noted, the rise of online and remote betting means an increasing share of gambling activity now crosses jurisdictional lines, and regulators need mechanisms to share intelligence and enforcement practices rather than working in isolation. An MOU with an established regulator like Nevada’s gives GRAI a template for handling licensing integrity and operator oversight as it processes its first wave of applicants under the Gambling Regulation Act 2024.
For operators eyeing both markets, the agreement signals that regulators on both sides of the Atlantic are paying closer attention to how licensing standards and enforcement practices compare. Bettors weighing legal sportsbooks in Nevada already operate under one of the most established regulatory frameworks in the country, and Ireland’s new authority appears intent on building toward that same level of rigor as its own licensing regime matures through 2026.